dache. "Surely," I
said, "I don't overeat, or overdrink." I had thought that mine was a
mysterious nervous headache, arising from the brain. But no, it seemed
to be due to turtle soup and port wine. However, the doctor, seeing my
surprise, comforted me by telling me that it was the nerves of the
head which affected the stomach, and thus produced indirectly the same
disturbance in my digestion as an aldermanic diet. Whether this was
true or was only meant as a _solatium_ I do not know. But what I do
know is, that by taking the medicine regularly for about half a year,
the frequency and violence of my headaches were considerably reduced,
while after about a year they vanished completely. I was a new being,
and my working time was doubled.

One lesson may be learnt from this, namely, that the English system of
doctoring is very imperfect. In England we wait till we are ill, then
go to a doctor, describe our symptoms as well as we can, pay one
guinea, or two, get our prescription, take drastic medicine for a
month and expect to be well. My German doctor, when he saw the
prescription of my English doctor, told me that he would not give it
to a horse. If after a month we are not better we go again; he
possibly changes our medicine, and we take it more or less regularly
for another month. The doctor cannot watch the effect of his medicine,
he is not sure even whether his prescriptions have been carefully
followed; and he knows but too well that anything like a chronic
complaint requires a chronic treatment. The important thing, however,
was that my headaches yielded gradually to the continued use of
medicine; it would hardly have produced the desired effect if I had
taken it by fits and starts. All this seems to me quite natural; but
though my English doctor cured me, and my German doctors did not, I
still hold that the German system is better. Most families have their
doctor in Germany, who calls from time to time to watch the health of
the old and young members of the family, particularly when under
medical treatment, and receives his stipulated annual payment, which
secures him a safe income that can be raised, of course, by attendance
on occasional patients. Perhaps the Chinese system is the best; they
pay their doctor while they are well, and stop payment as long as they
are ill. I know the unanswerable argument which is always thrown at my
head whenever I suggest to my friends that there are some things which
are possib